Drinking DOES help with an existential crisis
by Lauretania
Summary: When Dan's drink gets spiked by an unknown villian, what will happen between him and the barista he has just met, the ebony haired Phil?
Dan was not having the best day, it had to be said. A long day at uni once again had him wanting to run back home into the safety of his parents' house, curl up into his soft mattress, and watch anime until he forgot all of the regretful things that had happened in the most recent stage of his life.

But, as always when he reached this sort of thinking, he was not in his parents' house. Instead, he found himself out with a group of people from his shared halls. He didn't really know anyone too well, but he knew them well enough not to be alone.

The best way to describe it in words, was that he knew them well enough to be alone, but not well enough to not be lonely. He had always had a hard time with trusting people too well. He guessed that it might have been his strange experience with other kids as a child- though he was always cheerful, the other kids seemed to find that to be something that should be punished.

Dan sighed bitterly to himself. In a movie, this was the point where the actor would think about how much better he had become since the bullies of his younger years had picked on him, and sigh in contentment. Most likely by kissing a pretty girl.

But Dan was far from an actor, as his daily life reminded him of every waking minute. Still, he couldn't give up hope. An audition in the morning once again gave him the hope he desperately needed after a bad day, and Dan excused himself for a moment of solitude to run over the scene again in his head, remembering all the little tricks of demeanour that he accessed his character would have.

He headed over to the bar, away from his friends. The bar stood in a little alcove of the pub- Dan's friends weren't really night club people, much to Dan's delight. He couldn't really see the appeal of very loud, bad music that stopped you from hearing anything properly for days, or the idea of dancing really badly with random strangers. Dancing wasn't exactly Dan's forte.

He sat himself at the bar, and smiled to the barista. The barista smiled back, as he finished serving the young woman in front of him. The man seemed to be the perfect gentleman to the lady, keeping her engaged in light conversation and not breathing all over her and making her feel uncomfortable. He even helped her down from her seat as she was rather short.

Dan smiled to himself, perhaps chivalry wasn't completely dead. He hid behind his fringe as he muttered the lines back to himself, waiting for the barista to be free to serve him.

"Hey." The barista said suddenly, and Dan gasped at the back of his throat in surprise. The noise had startled him out of his practising. He could see the barista laughing quietly, his hand covering his mouth as he did so.

"You scared the crap out of me!" Dan complained, looking at the barista in slight annoyance, but mostly he was in a state of 'really did you just do that?'

"Sorry! But honestly, if you can think of another way that I could have got your attention _without_ just saying hey, then I'm all ears!" He said, merriment and laughter exuding from him in waves.

Dan rolled his eyes, but the guy was right.

"Fine. Could you get me a cocktail?" He asked shyly.

The guy looked him up and down sceptically.

"You got ID?" He asked, watching as Dan blushed in embarrassment and surprise. People didn't usually are if he was underage or not.

"Seriously?" Dan asked, looking at the barista incredulously, at which, the barista just winked, and then laughed quietly, leaning over the counter towards dan, whispering; "I won't tell if you don't."

Dan felt his skin shiver as he moved away from the barista, but, as he regained himself, he found himself smiling back at him.

"Thanks, might calm me down a little." He admitted, crossing his arms on the counter and resting his head on them, so he had to lift his eyes to watch the barista.

"Why, what's on your mind? And any particular cocktail?" The barista asked.

"Nah, any." Dan replied immediately, before adding, "And I'm just in another existential crisis... See, I want to be an actor, but I was convinced not to be since I was told I couldn't live on that. Now I'm working at Uni towards being a lawyer, and I hate it."

"Look, sorry, I didn't get your name...?" the barista asked, using that tone people do when they're floundering and they expect someone to intervene and save them.

"It's Dan. And you are...?" Using the same tone, smirking as he did so.

"Phil. You might have known that if I hadn't spilt tea on my name tag this morning." Phil said, laughing and handing Dan's drink to him, which Dan set beside him on the counter, now seemingly lost interest in it entirely.

A moment passed in steady silence.

"I'm guessing you have an audition then." Phil said into the silence, his eyes trained on the counter as he swept the cloth across it, clearing up hard stains that were clearly from days before.

Dan didn't know why he wasted time on such a pointless exercise, but his mind was again jolted back to the question at hand, so he didn't question Phil's actions further.

"Yeah, it's tomorrow morning. And I'm really nervous..." Dan explained, looking down at the counter in dismay, his hands clinging to Phil's side of the counter. Phil stopped his actions, and placed his hands over Dan's- smiling over at him.

"Don't be, I'm sure you'll do fine-" Phil looked as if he might say more, but the boys broke apart at the sound of shattered glass, and Phil looked like he wanted to curse, but he just smiled apologetically at dan as he jumped up to sit on the counter, swung his legs over it, and came to stand on Dan's side.

" It would have been so much easier to just GO AROUND THE COUNTER you idiot!" Dan reprimanded, but Phil made a sheepish facial expression.

"I know I know, but wasn't it a tiny bit sexy? And I'm sorry, I won't be long, just wait here for me ok?" Phil said, and then disappeared to clear up the mess.

Dan could almost swear he could see Phil bushing beneath the thick rims of his glasses.

Dan waited in his seat, his mind once again switching away from Phil and back to his abysmal living situation. Acting or law, acting or law.

He sipped his drink for the first time pensively as he thought, swirling the liquid in the glass before setting it back beside him. He hoped Phil wasn't long, for the first time in a while, his mind was actually not thinking about how badly he felt. Instead, he felt ok.

And maybe Phil could be his friend. Maybe he wouldn't be lonely anymore.

He took another sip of his drink and sighed. God he was sad.

Phil ran back to Dan in a matter of seconds, grabbing Dan's arm to stop his speed. It felt like a punch to his arm and Dan yelped in surprise.

"What the hell Phil?" He demanded, but stopped when he saw Phil's wide eyes.

"Please tell me you didn't drink that." Phil said gesturing to Dan's drink.

"Yeah, why? You didn't make it badly, it's nice! Don't worry!"

"Damn.." Phil said quietly. "Dan, I saw someone slip something into your drink a few minutes ago! I tried to get to you, but there are a lot more people in here than you'd think." He said apologetically.

"Oh." Dan said, "But wait, I have my audition tomorrow!" He protested.

"Then you better hope it wasn't anything to bad." Phil said as jovially as he could.

Dan went awfully silent, and it was only then that Phil noticed Dan was slipping quickly into unconsciousness.

"Dan!" Phil shouted, and Dan jolted awake, looking at Phil with a look of mild anger, but also grinning at the same time.

"You're reaaaaaallly cuteeee..." He slurred and Phil laughed and rubbed his eyes.

"Oh fantastic." Phil groaned, half leading, half carrying Dan out the door.

Turned out Phil was better at multitasking than he thought, as he both excused himself from his job to his manager, and got someone to cover him at the bar, and lead a slurring and giggling Dan out of the door.

"Glasses..." Dan mumbled as Phil lead them both into a taxi.

The taxi driver didn't look much more conscious than Dan, Phil noticed.

Dan promptly fell asleep on Phil's shoulder, and Phil couldn't help but smile down at him as Dan's head fell against his shoulder, his long fringe falling across his face.

"Come on Dan." Phil muttered, lifting the unconscious teen into his apartment. Since Phil had no way of finding out where Dan lived, he had no choice but to take Dan to his place to sleep.

He just hoped that the taxi driver wouldn't report him as a teen sex offender, because only then did he realise how sinister the situation could have turned out. If Phil had taken much longer, it was likely Dan would be ushered out by a much older man, and unspeakable things would be done to him as he slept.

Phil had to rest Dan against the wall by the door as he fell to his knees and gagged, struggling to keep food down as it threatened to rise up his throat. Stupid imagination.

He succeeded in feeling better, and after a few minutes went back to helping Dan up to his flat, the younger of the two still sound asleep.

He set Dan down on the couch and covered him up with a blanket, before collapsing in his own bed and falling asleep.

What a night.

When Dan awoke his head spun uncomfortably, the room spinning in time with it, and he felt his stomach contort horribly as he pitched himself forward. His food from last night disappeared onto the floor.

Normally this would not have bothered him, but he eventually realised that the floor he was now miserably staring at was not in fact his floor, but someone else's.

He descended into panic very quickly indeed.

"Hello!?" He asked into the large living room, and then, from one of the doors on the far side of the room, emerged a tall man with black hair whom he recognised as Phil the barista.

Dan collapsed back into the sofa immediately after recognising Phil standing there.

Phil was on him in an instant. It was as if he didn't even see his messed up floor.

"You look awful." Phil said sympathetically, checking Dan's temperature.

"I know, and I have that audition tomorrow it's so unfair..." Dan lamented.

"It'll have to wait. You're horrendously sick." Phil reasoned, as he began to clean the mess of the floor.

Not before he gave Dan a large bowl to hold onto however. Dan wasn't sure to be glad that Phil had thought ahead or hate the idea that he might through up _again_.

He settled on both.

"You can stay here till you feel better, in fact, I insist that you do. I'm afraid if you move you'll just fall and hit your head on the floor."

Dan's head was overcome with an image of Baymax from Big Hero 6 as he went to take a step and fell head first onto the stairs.

He giggled a little, and Phil looked at him like he was crazy.

"I don't know what he gave you but I wish I'd punched him." Phil said sighing.

Dan rolled his eyes skeptically, and looked Phil up and down.

"You?" He asked. "You're scrawny as hell." He said, laughing.

"I don't care, he still should have been punished for what he did." Phil said quietly, and Dan felt like the air was charged with anger.

Was Phil always this protective of people he'd just met?

"It's fine." Dan said, "I'll be alright once I get it out of my system." He said, gesturing at the bowl with a grim expression. Phil laughed.

"Do you want me to stay with you?" Phil asked, and Dan looked at him incredulously.

"You literally just met me! We're not married!" Then Dan remembered to be grateful for Phil's kindness, like his mum always used to tell him to do, "Thank you for the offer, but I'll be alright." He added.

Phil nodded, and went to go out the door, before turning around and said, "Can I get your number?"

It was almost shy, it was quick, like Phil had forced it out through a filter.

"You know, just in case you get bored or something." He added, and Dan grinned cockily.

"You trying to ask me out like a shy teenager or are you always like this?" He teased, but he gave Phil his number anyway.

They tested the numbers, and then finally, Phil turned to leave.

"Text me if you need anything."

"I will."

"And drink lots of water."

"I will."

"And keep warm."

"I will."

"And go out with me."

"I will."

"..."

"Wait what?!"


End file.
